A blogsite not for me to bloviate; but for me to share my origami videos with the origami community. I am affiliated with the Westcoast Origami Guild, Pacific Ocean Paperfolders, Origami Paperfolders of San Diego, Origami USA, and the Origami Interest Group (Origami-L/O-List).

Saturday, May 21, 2016

stomach-repairing origami robot made of meat?!

On Thursday, researchers at MIT revealed the origami meat robot
that they designed to patch stomach wounds, deliver medicine, and
remove dangerous foreign objects that patients may have accidentally
swallowed. In early simulations with pig esophagus and gut tissue, the
robot traveled down to the stomach in an ice capsule that melted along
the way. Once there, the robot unfolded and could be steered around the
stomach using external magnets. In a demonstration video provided by MIT News,
the researchers show that the robot can move a button battery in their
simulation stomach. The researchers presented their robot this week at
the International Conference on Robotics and Automation.“It’s really exciting to see our small origami robots doing something
with potential important applications to health care,” said Daniela
Rus, lead researcher on the study and director of MIT’s Computer Science
and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.The meat robot builds on other origami robots the lab has made. It
consists of two layers: one of a biodegradable shrink wrap called
Biolefin and another of dried pig intestines used in sausage casings.
When sections of Biolefin are warmed up, that layer contracts and, based
on the folds and slits in the pork layer, the whole robot folds. This
contracting and folding action fuels a “stick-slip” motion, whereby a
robot appendage sticks to the stomach surface via friction, but then
slips free when a new area warms, the robot folds, and its weight
shifts.
Embedded in the center of one of the robot’s accordion folds is a
tiny magnet that allows the robot to be steered using magnetic fields
outside the body.